ALMOST 1,000 pensioners have been hospitalised after taking illegal drugs as the swinging 60s generation hit old age, The People can reveal.

The number of OAPs poisoning themselves with cocaine, cannabis and amphetamines has TRIPLED in the last decade.

And almost half of those rushed to A&E last year were OVER 75.

Experts blame the spike on the ‘sex, drugs and rock n’ roll’ generation – who were in their teens and twenties when The Rolling Stones, Jimmi Hendrix and The Who were strutting their stuff – reaching old age.

David Raynes of the National Drug Prevention Alliance said: “We are getting to the period where people who grew up in the sixties are of that age.”